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Israel and Palestine
Context
This page lists my academic and opinion papers on Israel/Palestine. (My old blog is now mostly non-functional.)
My anarchist leanings magnify my suspicion of any movement seeking a nation state, but my primary interest is ending injustice. Despite inevitable complexity, supporting Palestinian efforts to end Israeli oppression is the priority. Although I long ago realized that Zionist efforts to create a state that's both Jewish and democratic cannot succeed, I remain concerned about the people I know, and know about, on both sides of the line.
After high school I spent 1966-67 in Israel on a program organized by the Zionist youth group Young Judaea. In 1972 I returned with a group I co-founded that planned to build a new kibbutz. Four months later I left Israel. Except for a few newspaper columns critical of Israel after the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon, I avoided the topic for many years, directing my academic and political work elsewhere. I was no longer a Zionist, but avoided taking the next step. And even while taking that step beginning in 2002, my thinking reflected lingering confusion, inconsistency, and wishful thinking as the logic pushed me to reevaluate my earlier assumptions and goals.
During this period since 2002, I have visited Israel and the West Bank four times:
- 2004-2005, for one month, half the time with Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. I began a (now unusable) blog to write about the visit and posted a lot of photos.
- 2006, for ten weeks. After a week with a Health and Human Rights Delegation from Jewish Voice for Peace, I taught a five-week seminar at Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva on Psychology, Law, and Justice, lectured at Al Quds University in Abu Dis (just east of Jerusalem's Separation Wall), and ran workshops for law-and-society researchers at Birzeit University near Ramallah. Lots more photos.
- 2008, for a month. I attended a conference on Siege and Mental Health and spent three weeks in Ramallah. Blogged about it. And even more photos.
- 2016, for just three weeks. Among other activities, I attended a large protest at the Jerusalem/Bethlehem border.
I haven’t written about all of this since 2011, mostly because I felt hopeless and didn’t have much new to say. Now, in the wake of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, I’m thinking of getting back to it. At the moment (2024) I’m working with Jewish Voice for Peace.
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2011
2009
2008
Radio Interview
- This Week in Palestine with Sherif Fam, WZBC-Boston: Gaza (November, 2008) [Audiotape - begins at 15:11]
2007
2006
2005
Radio Interview
No Borders with Ron Sakolsky, Denman Island Free Radio: Israel and Palestine (May 29, 2005)
2004
2003
Media Interviews
- War Forum with Rebecca Love. Brookline Access TV, Brookline, Massachusetts (6/18/03)
- Censored History with Bonnie Perkins, KPFZ 104.5 FM Community Radio, Lake County, California (1/4/03)
2002
Repression: The issue that started me on this topic again
Generating discussion in Brookline, Massachusetts
Anti-Semitism and other issues the peace/justice left should address
Other Commentaries
Radio Interviews
- Jean Feraca Show, Wisconsin Public Radio: Israel/Palestine and the Left (6/6/02)
- Chuck Morse Conservative Radio WROL-AM 950 Boston (5/3/02)
2001
Years of Avoidance....
1982-83
Israel/Palestine Links - Israel/Palestine Photos |